


Hospital Gossip

by writelove



Series: I Know Now, Everything Changed [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:13:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,439
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24672901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writelove/pseuds/writelove
Summary: Stiles and Lydia don't heal supernaturally, so they spend a night recovering in the hospital after 5x20 and wind up discussing their various relationship statuses.
Relationships: Lydia Martin/Stiles Stilinski
Series: I Know Now, Everything Changed [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1785109
Comments: 1
Kudos: 51





	Hospital Gossip

**Author's Note:**

> A collection of the missing scenes in Stiles and Lydia's relationship, from the moment she kissed him to the moment she kissed him, again.

Lydia and Stiles laid in adjacent hospital beds, both recovering from significant, but relatively treatable wounds A shard of glass had punctured Stiles’ chest, but not deep enough to do any severe damage, just a few stitches and a couple days of observation, he was promised. Lydia had it worse, undoubtedly, but she gotten through the worst of it when Melissa treated her the first time, earlier that night. It was odd; a few weeks prior, Stiles and Scott weren’t speaking, Lydia was locked in an institution where drilling holes in heads was an acceptable practice, and yet, they’d come out of it relatively unscathed. The night had been chaotic, of course, but Theo was gone, Mason was no longer unknowingly transforming into an ancient werewolf, and the McCall pack was fully intact. They were okay; they were going to be okay. 

“Stiles!” She whispered hoarsely from her bed, “Stiles, wake up!” 

They’d both uttered the same words to each other before, but her voice wasn’t filled with panic and terror this time. There was a glimmer of annoyance, but Stiles also detected a bit of laughter in her voice. 

“I’m up,” He wiped a bit of sleep from his eyes, “What’s wrong?” 

Lydia smiled to herself, “Nothing, can’t sleep.” 

“Can’t sleep like something is going to be wrong?”

“No,” She answered with a laugh; he wasn’t incorrect to assume that she’d had some horrific nightmare or that she’d had some premonition of dark events to come. After particular tragedies, they found themselves cuddled in the same bed on occasion, holding each other until a restless sleep drifted upon them. This time was different though, “I’m just feeling adrenaline, talk to me.” 

Stiles grinned, pleased to hear that this brand of sleeplessness was ordinary and not some insomnia triggered by trauma. Still, though, he knew her voice wouldn’t reach more than a whisper, a small reminder that they weren’t ordinary, so he hoisted himself out of his bed and pulled a chair to her bedside. Memories of all the instances he’d sat beside her, clutching her hand and begging her to be alright, flooded back. He outstretched his hand for hers, and held it lightly, not trying to pull her back to life, just wanting to be connected. It was a nice change of pace. 

“What do you want to know?” 

For a while, they gossiped about meaningless high school drama. While Lydia had been in Eichen, she’d certainly missed a lot, and while Stiles was busy making plans to help Scott get the pack back together, to save Lydia, he’d always been particularly observant. So, he told her about how he saw Finstock and their math teacher holding hands outside the teacher’s lounge, Lydia and Stiles had long suspected that they were an item. And he told her about senior prank day, when a bunch of kids poured olive oil down the hallways and the school kept everyone in their first period classes until the end of the day because it was too dangerous to walk around – both of them laughed at the administration’s definition of dangerous. And he launched into a detailed recap of the latest season of New Girl – Jess and Nick finally got together, both were pleased at the development, and made plans to watch the entire season once they got out of the hospital. It was stupid, silly chatter, nothing of importance, but it was everything they needed at that moment. 

They’d been talking for nearly an hour, when Lydia got up the courage to ask what she’d been wondering for quite some time. 

“Stiles?” His eyes flitted up to meet hers, and she took a deep breath. Her voice was low, lower than it needed to be, but it frightened her to raise it any further, “What happened … how did … are you still with Malia?” 

Stiles looked down at their entwined hands, and thought she might already know the answer, but he owed her an explanation. 

“No, we broke up a couple weeks ago. We’re figuring out the whole being friends thing as it comes, I guess.” 

“I’m sorry,” She offered timidly. 

“It’s okay, I think I knew it wouldn’t last,” He didn’t tell her that a part of him still harboured so much love for a certain strawberry blonde with green eyes, “But after everything with Donavon, it was just … time. We aren’t on the same page, not on the important stuff.” 

Lydia nodded. She’d seen the Donavon event in some inexplicable banshee vision and talked to him about it the night he saved her life, that conversation felt easier than posing the Malia question. Almost imperceptibly, she gripped his hand a little tighter; she knew he still cared about the coyote, but it did feel different now. Unbeknownst to her, the jealousy she’d silently harboured lifted, a weight off of her chest that she never bothered to notice crushing her. For a moment, she entertained the idea that her feelings for him went beyond something platonic, but shoved it away; it wasn’t the time to sort out the complexities of their emotional tether or what, if anything, this meant for them. 

“Breakups suck,” She offered lightly, opting for humour. 

He chuckled and agreed, before ducking his head into his chest. Silence befell them, not awkward or uncomfortable, just quiet. They weren’t accustomed to the frivolity of such simple, normal problems, but it was peaceful. In the peace, though, a thought seemed to invade his mind, pressing him to ask the question he’d been wondering about for so long. He’d tried desperately to deny that it was jealousy simmering deep within him – he was with Malia, she was Lydia Martin, his best friend, not Lydia Martin, his long-time crush. But it pervaded his thoughts, intrusive to the silence they were enjoying. Suddenly he lifted to meet hers and tried to mask the intentions in his question with curiosity and the care of friendship, but even he could tell he was unsuccessful. 

“What’s going on with you and Parrish?” 

It came as a surprise to her for a number of reasons; it surprised her that he’d even noticed the time she’d been spending with the deputy, it surprised her that her thought it was more than a supernatural connection, and it surprised her that her cared if it was. Most of all, though, it surprised her how glad she was that it mattered to him. 

“He’s a hellhound,” She started, “A harbinger of death, like me. I’ve been helping him try to figure it out, but to be honest, I don’t know much. You’ve always been better at this stuff than me. Maybe we can all try to work it out sometime.” 

“Oh. I thought maybe you two were, I don’t dating, or something.” 

“We aren’t. It isn’t like that,” She answered resolutely. Before she spoke, she breathed deeply again, summoning all the courage she could to utter her next words, “I think I have feelings for someone else.” 

Their eyes were locked. Neither of them had explicitly said what the other desperately wanted to hear, but they both knew. The self-doubt and envy that had long consumed them both in silence, finally passed. In that moment, hands entangled, they knew everything had changed. They wouldn’t act on it, not then; they needed time to heal, Lydia from the trauma of Eichen, Stiles from the end of his first real relationship. They promised wordlessly to help each other mend themselves, but when they finally made the leap to a real relationship, they wanted it to be right, for it to last. It wasn’t a declaration of love or a kiss so passionate it would shake the ground, but in that moment, everything had unmistakably and irrevocably changed. 

They let the minutes pass by aimlessly, not worried about impending doom or when they’d inevitably have to part. 

Lydia spoke first, with a smirk on her face, gesturing towards her neck, “So, do you think this is going to scar? 

Stiles broke into giggles and shook his head, after all they’d gone through, that she was still able to joke was a pleasant reminder that they would be alright. When he let the laughter subside, he met her eyes again. 

“Lydia,” He said in feigned disbelief, “When did you get so vain?” 

He was met with a similar giggle fit on her end, so they went on like that for the rest of the night; teasing each other, remembering the people they were and how much they’d grown, as individuals, but together all the same. The sun rose again, and they knew they’d be alright.

**Author's Note:**

> Teen Wolf emotionally destroyed me the first time and I was pretty much obsessed with it for years. I've since put off rewatching it/reading fic/following fan accounts for 3 years and yet, 4 months of quarantine have brought me to a point where not only am I fully obsessed, but need to write a series worth of fic to express my e m o t i o n s.


End file.
